Moving On
by harmonemmy
Summary: Sora moves a lot. The latest move takes him to Key Heights, and therefore Key High. He is taken under the wings of the cool kids. After growing closer to these kids than just about anyone he's ever met, how will he deal if he has to move again?
1. Uppity

Disclaimer: I do not own Disney or any it's affiliated products/companies. I do not own Square Enix, or any of its affiliated products/companies. This applies to all of the chapters of this story.

Uppity

"Hey, did you see that new kid?" The group of teenagers sat around their table at lunch. They were generally regarded as the "popular group," for lack of a better term, because they fit the popular stereotype best. They were five gorgeous boys and girls, and together they knew pretty much everyone at the school.

"Yeah. There's something about him that says 'ravish me,' but that could just be my innocence radar going off the charts." The boy talking was the eldest of the group. A tall senior with red hair and green eyes, he was uncontrollable. He had somehow managed to sneak away from the class overnight as a junior and get two teardrop tattoos below his eyes. A feat normally considered impossible in the middle of a mountain range at two in the morning, no one knew how he had done it and he wasn't telling. That was a typical day, for him.

"You're so wild Axel. Try not to kill yourself." Namine was by far the least devious of the group. She was a sweet sophomore, with big blue eyes and long blonde hair. Her gentle nature balanced out Axel's completely.

"I haven't seen him, but if Axel is using the ravish-o-meter, I should probably turn on my gay-dar." This next member lounged in his seat, his feet on the table. His hair was carefully styled and he wore an outfit that strictly adhered to their dress code. Even though his shell was so conservative, he exuded an air of non-conformity. Also a sophomore, he was obviously more mature for his age.

"That is so mean Roxas! Just because Axel wants to ravish him or whatever doesn't mean this kid's gay! You should be ashamed." This girl was the youngest, a freshman, but was nevertheless the mother of the group. She had chestnut hair and blue eyes. Loving and very playful, Kairi was able to hold her own in the group.

"You guys are such busybodies. So there's a new kid. Get over it." Riku was the most commanding. He was authoritative and needed to say little, for his face was expressive. He was also, by close reckoning, the most perfect. He had long silver hair, and large teal eyes. His body was chiseled and he carried it with a grace that was incapable by the others. Riku was the only junior.

"You've seen him haven't you?! What does he look like?" Kairi was eager to hear about him, for this new child was also a freshman, and she might have classes with him.

"He's got tan skin, brown hair, and blue eyes." Riku's answer was simple enough. Axel butted in.

"I saw him during my free period. He walked past the library. Got the energy of a toddler who just had his first coca-cola. I say walking, but it was really more like jogging. Really fluid though. This kid's gorgeous I tell you. Dibs, got it memorized?"

"Your gayness never ceases to astound me." Roxas seemed rather amused at Axels "mine" attitude.

"That's just because you're not gay. If you girls had seen him first, you would've called dibs too, trust me. His hair is this nest on top of his head. Really bad bed-head lookin'. I didn't see his eyes that well, but they were, indeed, blue. Big though…" Axel's prose was interrupted by an annoyed sound from behind him. He turned and saw the boy he had just been describing standing behind him, one hand on his hip, the other holding his backpack strap.

"Word to the wise: gossip in private. My name's Sora by the way. Not kid."

He turned to walk away when Axel said to him, "I'm a senior, freshie, I'll call you whatever I damn well please. Got it memorized?"

Sora whipped around and walked right up to Axel. "You're not going to get any dates that way, now are you?" Everyone was rather surprised. Not many people had the guts to snark at a senior. Much less a tall one with piercings and bright red hair.

"I like you." Roxas smirked at Axel, who was rather frozen with shock, and turned his attention back to Sora. "Want to have lunch with us?"

Kairi commented as well. "Yeah, you should sit with us. Not many people can shut up Axel."

"Ah, sure." Sora put his backpack down carefully, pulled his lunch out, and plopped it down onto the table top. "What are all your names?"

"Kairi."

"Namine"

"Riku"

"Roxas. And he's Axel, but I think that's been mentioned." Sora nodded and began to eat his sandwich.

"Why aren't any of you guys eating?"

"School food sucks and we're all too lazy to make our own. It's not too hard to wait the hour and a half till school ends." Their school had a rotating schedule to make class periods longer. Many students just viewed it as one more way to make their lives more complicated.

"Good enough reason for me." Sora continued to eat his sandwich.

"We always go to Namine's house after school anyways. Her mom is a baker, so she spends all day experimenting for her shop." Kairi was practically salivating at the thought.

"You're a sweets person, huh?" Sora opened his chips.

Riku answered for Kairi. "If you paid her in sweets, she would do any job on earth, if that answers your question."

"Riku, that's totally untrue! Just most jobs. I wouldn't be a, what are they called, sanitation engineer? Yeah, sanitation engineer for anything." Kairi shuddered.

"Hey! My Dad's a sanitation engineer! That's not a cool thing to say!" Sora looked righteous in admonishing the girl.

"Oh! I- I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"He's joking Kairi. Look at him." Roxas was grinning. Sora's face, slightly contorted from keeping his laughs in, broke into a grin.

"That was slick," Axel chuckled. "So what is your Dad?"

"He's a major in the army. 'Cause of the war he travels around the county to a lot of bases and talks to new recruits. Whenever the post lasts a while, or it's a really big distance, we move with him."

"That also explains why you were transferred at such a weird time."

"Riku, right? Yeah. I was told finals are in a couple weeks. I took them early at my old school, 'because we would have finished them this week. So I actually don't have to take them here."

Axel scowled. "You lucky bastard. The finals here are really hard. This place is basically a college prep school."

"You're a senior. I still don't get why you don't just skip finals. It's the first semester. If you do well second semester, it wouldn't matter." Roxas spoke sense, twisted though the subject was.

"I still don't get why you don't get it. I got in on a _scholarship_. If I skip finals, I lose said scholarship, got it memorized?" They looked as though Axel had been over this several times before.

"Roxas, your grades count. If you skip finals, the college people are going to know. It's their job to eliminate people who aren't good enough, and skipping finals shows a lack of drive, or determination. Finals are thirty percent of your grade. Don't do it." Namine spoke earnestly, obviously worried that Roxas might actually skip the most important tests of the semester.

"I know. I won't actually skip finals. I can dream though, right?" The group lapsed into silence. After a few awkward moments, Kairi spoke.

"What class do you have next?" She questioned Sora with interest.

"Um, math, I think. Let me check." Sora dug into his pocket and produced his schedule. "Yup, Algebra II. 310, could one of you guys show me where that is?" The group stared.

"You're in Algebra II-" started Kairi.

"And you're a freshman." Axel finished.

"Yeah. I've always been good at math."

"Well, who do you have?" Riku reached for the schedule, and Sora passed it over. "Oh, Ms. Walters. Cool, we have class together."

"Awesome. You can help me catch up."

"You said you already took finals though." Namine broke in.

"Yeah, but schools aren't usually on the same schedule. In my case, where I was on the other side of the country, we probably don't even use the same books." The whole group nodded in recognition of this logic.

"Gimme your schedule, I want to see if we have any classes together." Kairi took the paper from Sora. She looked it over, and made a disappointed face. "Only science, oh well. We have a couple of the same teachers though."

"That's cool."

"What electives are you taking?" Roxas leaned over and took the schedule from Kairi. "Oh hey, Axel, he's taking art your period."

"Really? Awesome. I get to bother him and extra hour and a half every other day." Everyone but Sora knew that by 'bother' Axel really meant flirt to frustration.

"Wait, you're taking Art II, but you're a senior."

"No, I'm in AP Art, but I TA your class. It's a pretty good class, kid-wise."

"Sounds like I'll have a good year then."

"Pretty much, yeah." The group noticed a sudden decrease in people in the area.

"Why is everybody leaving? The bell hasn't rung." All but Sora grabbed their things.

"You can't hear the bell out here. People generally leave about five minutes before the late bell." Riku waited by Sora, nodding goodbye to his friends as they went their separate ways. "Math is over there. Do you have a book?" Riku began to walk once Sora had gathered his things.

"Yeah, I got one this morning."

"Good. You'll probably sit next to me, since there is an empty seat at my table. And the teacher likes me, so." They approached an open door, through which Sora saw a classroom filled with talking teenagers. He walked in just behind Riku, less nervous than when he had first walked into his other classrooms. As he walked in, he saw a woman at a desk glance at them and get up.

"You must be Sora. I see you've made friends with Riku, that's good. You're going to sit next to him. I'm Ms. Walters." She held out her hand, and Sora shook it.

"Nice to meet you. Um, what are you guys working on?" As Ms. Walters began to answer, the bell rang.

"Darn, I have to start class. Don't worry, you'll figure it out. If you get stuck, ask Riku to help, or me." She turned away and began class. "Okay, kids, get out your homework so I can check it…"

Sora turned to see where Riku was sitting, but found that Riku was still standing next to him. "We sit over here." They went to a table by the door, sat down, and took out their binders. Ms Miller came around to check the homework, and then started the lesson.

m0.0m

Sora laid his forehead down on the smooth, cool desk and sighed. He had learned all of this ages ago, and was bored nearly to tears. The teacher had been explaining for almost twenty minutes, and he didn't even have to take notes because he had kept the notes from his last class. He began to softly bang his head on the table, but stopped because it was too loud.

"Oh Jesus in heaven, please let this end…" He heard a small snort from his right, and leaned his head so that his cheek lay on the now-warm surface. "What."

"You're funny." Riku was switching his attention back and forth between the board and Sora, taking notes. "You do realize that she checks notebooks right?"

"Whatever, I still have the notes from the last place. Fucking hell, this is boring." Riku snorted again as Sora sat up and began hitting his forehead with his knuckles.

"What you need is a good hoodie." Riku had almost finished his notes.

"Why? So I can cover my face and pretend I'm not here?" Sora's face had a large red mark spreading from his forehead down to the bridge of his nose.

"No, so you can hide head phones. You put up the hood, put the wire underneath the zipper, and shazaam! Instant entertainment.

"Shazaam?" Sora had stopped his masochistic pounding to stare incredulously.

"I couldn't think of anything better. It was that or boom."

"Wasn't Shazaam the name of the movie where the genie came out of the boom box?"

"…Sure. Whatever you say."

"You never saw that movie? It used to be on Disney, like, every day." Sora was now leaning his face on one hand, keeping his voice quiet.

"I'm not really a TV person." Riku finished his notes and leaned back. Sora was tempted to poke Riku's abs but resisted the urge.

"There has to be something that you like to watch." Riku began to absent-mindedly play with his hair, and Sora was surprised at how girly it made him look.

"Well, I don't know. House is pretty good." Sora debated with himself on whether he should tell Riku that he was acting like a girl.

"You know…" Could he bring himself to do it?

"What?" Riku extracted his hand from his hair, and turned to Sora. He was once again a boy with long hair.

"You're the first guy who's ever said House. Don't you watch, like, Deadwood or 24?"

"We don't have HBO."

"Oh. Yes! She's finally posted the homework." Sora began working, finally escaping the lethargy that had trapped him. Riku rummaged around his backpack, and brought out an iPod. He looked at Sora, who had already finished the first problem; sighed, rolled his eyes, and began to work.

By the time class was nearly over, Sora had commandeered Riku's iPod, and Riku had given up on trying to complete the assignment before class ended. He decided that convincing Sora to return his iPod before he headed home would be good enough.

"Can I please have my iPod back?"

"Dude, no." Riku pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering if he would be fast enough to just grab it back.

"Jesus Sora. It's my iPod."

"Not anymore." Sora moved the iPod even farther away from Riku's outstretched hand.

"Would you at least give it back to me before I go home?" Riku retracted his hand and began to lightly pound his knee in frustration, beginning to think that slowly pounding his face in as Sora had been doing earlier did not sound so bad.

"Maybe." Sora looked at the ceiling, his fingers drumming in time to the music.

"Argh." Riku took a deep breath, resisting the urge of bringing bodily harm to the boy next to him. He was about to try and take it back when the bell rang. Sora immediately simultaneously took of the head phones and turned off the music, then threw the iPod back onto Riku's desk. Riku stared and the cube of plastic and metal on the counter, wondering about how it had gotten there. It hadn't really been that easy, had it? Sora had been packed up for a good half and hour, and stood next to Riku's desk.

"So, you put the binder and book in your back pack, and then you zip it up. You take the iPod and-"

"Oh shut up." Riku began to pack his things away.

"Good you're awake. I thought that you'd died or something." Riku snorted.

"I wish I'd died about 45 minutes ago."

"If I recall, that was about when I took your iPod."

"Yeah, whatever." They began to walk, Riku leading the way to his friends after school meeting spot.

A/N: I take a long time to update. A LOOOOOOOOOOONG time.


	2. Ending of an Aquaintanceship

After talking briefly to the group, they decieded to split

A/N: What's this? A new chapter? I actually have been writing a lot, just… I don't write chronologically. I have couple chapters worth of stuff at least, just they're all over the timeline.

Ending of an Acquaintanceship

After talking briefly to the group, they decided to split. The girls went to Namine's house, Roxas and Axel walked home together, leaving Sora and Riku to walk home together. As they went their separate ways, Sora noticed Roxas and Axel bickering.

"Do they do that a lot?"

"Who? What?"

"Axel and Roxas. Do they fight a lot?"

Riku thought for a moment. "They don't really fight, more like squabble. Often enough I suppose."

"Have they ever had a serious fight?"

"Not that I know of. They've never not talked to each other for more than a day though. They're too close."

"Oh, okay. That's good." Sora smiled, and Riku bemusedly smiled back.

"Why is it good?" Sora laughed at Riku's response.

"Well, 'that's good' was really just a closure phrase. But, it's also nice that I won't have to mediate any arguments."

"Do you do that often?"

"Only when I have to. I hate getting in the middle of arguments, but sometimes it has to be done. I'm good at it, at least."

"How can a kid be a good mediator?" Sora smiled wryly.

"You're only two years older than me; you shouldn't call me a kid." Riku smirked back at him.

"Oh, I am so much more mature though."

"Apparently." They smiled, and Sora continued speaking. "But anyway, I stay unbiased. And obviously so. I see both sides of an issue, and I basically make them understand each other."

"Never a right or wrong side?" Riku joked.

"Actually, a lot of the time there is. People can be really stupid."

Riku was surprised to hear such a negative thing come from the perky boy, but he didn't comment. Sora continued, "I'm optimistic, but I have to be realistic too. People don't always do the right thing."

"True dat."

"What." Sora's expression was incredulous.

"Come on, you know what 'true dat' is, right?"

"Well, yeah, I can guess. IT just sounds so…" Sora searched for the right term.

"Ghetto?" Riku ventured.

"Yeah. And I mean… you're… really, really not."

"I say it as a joke. But I heard it from some ghetto friends of mine, so it's not that random."

"Yes it is." Riku's explanation had not helped Sora get over what he felt was such an awkward sounding phrase.

"I moved here in seventh grade."

"So you have friends from a ghetto."

"Yup." Sora mused on this for a moment. A question popped into his head.

"Hey, Riku, where do you live?"

"Down the street form you." Sora could only emit a strangled questioning sound, at which Riku laughed. "Yeah, I saw you guys move in."

"I, uh… Okay then." Riku chuckled at Sora's surprise. "When were you going to tell me that?"

"Um, I was just going to say bye when we got to my house, and let you figure it out." Sora seemed at once bemused and incredulous.

"Tch, what next."

"Kairi's my neighbor, so you'll be seeing a lot of her too."

"Oh." Sora was slightly less surprise this time. "That's good. I like Kairi."

"She's pretty sweet."

After another few minutes of walking and chatting, they arrived at Sora's house.

"Well, this is where I live now, so… Bye, I guess."

"Yup. Nicest house on the block and it's all yours." Sora laughed.

"At least it's not on a base. See you tomorrow!"

Riku laughed in return. Smiling, he replied, "Yeah, see you," and went to his own house just a mere, now that he counted, five houses down from the brunettes.

m0.0m

Riku found it slightly disconcerting to click with someone so quickly. He and Sora got along unbelievably well. Riku was not a solitary creature, but he was not good at making friends himself. All his close friends he had gotten though Kairi, his neighbor and best friend since seventh grade.

He thought about the strange creature that was Sora. Not so strange actually. Everything that Sora did was what one expected friends to do. He stole Riku's stuff, teased him, joked, and complained. It was just that Riku had known Sora for what, three-ish hours?

"Let's see, it's after four, and lunch is at…" He checked to see what time lunch started. "One. Ish."

He stared at his math homework, which was not done as it usually was. Because of Sora. He smiled, inwardly grimacing that the fiasco that math was sure to become.

"Ruined forevermore. Wait, shouldn't it just be evermore? Is forevermore even a word? Probably not. Let me check…" He paused. "Math, yeah! Right!" He viciously rubbed his face in frustration, trying to get his concentration back.

"Exactly my point." He stared at his homework, having no desire to try to finish.

"Riku," he heard his mother yell as she enter the house, "How's homework coming?"

"Fine!" He yelled back, then to himself, "Why hello there motivation, nice of you to join us." And he started his homework.

m0.0m

Sora sat in his work room, pleased with himself. Not only did he not have any homework, he'd already made a bunch of friends. It was nice to not have to work very hard to fit in. He happily sketched away, doodling in his corner.

"You know, I really like this place. The people are nice." He smiled, still sketching away. "I mean, it seems like people are pretty accepting here. I won't have to be all sneaky about coming out!" He thought about Riku and wondered if he was gay.

"I mean, on one hand, I've never actually seen a gay guy with long hair. Especially not in high school. But on the other hand, he _played_ with it. I've never seen a straight guy play with his own hair…" He hemmed and hawed on the subject, turning his doodle into a sketch.

"We'll see. It'll come up eventually." Once on the subject of his new friend, his mind couldn't leave. "Pretty cool guy. Good taste in music. Not super serious, just a bit quiet. Well, not quiet…" Sora thought a minute. "Thoughtful. Yeah, think-before-you-speak type. Verrrry charismatic though. I like him." Another thought crossed his mind.

"He's pretty." Sora laughed. "Poor guy. Pretty." He chuckled to himself.

"I'm kind pretty too though. Oh well."

m0.0m

Kairi sat in her room, listening to music and finishing her homework.

"So close…" she muttered to herself, working fervently on the last problem. She finished violently, throwing her pencil down. "HA! Take _that_ homework!" she gasped a bit, looking around to see if any one had heard her. After deciding that no one had, in fact, heard the outburst, she relaxed.

"Now what. Hm…" She put on some music and lay on her bed, enjoying the lack of things to do. She thought about her day, and eventually her thoughts came to Sora.

"He's cute. Like, like… cute." She giggled again at the though. "Is he gay though? I hope he's bi at least. Then I'll get a chance!" She giggled again at the prospect.

"I wonder if Axel will really 'ravish' him, or whatever." She made quotation marks to herself. "I kind of' hope he does. That would be entertaining." She didn't giggle this time, her thoughts floating.

"Maybe Roxas would get jealous enough to realize he like Axel. And then do something about it. That would be so nice!" She rolled over onto her stomach.

"Stupid boys. Jeez Louise. Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid! Boys, uch!" After years of close contact with the species, she had decided that very few men understood their emotions, much less how to express them.

"What they would do without me and Namine, I have no idea. Shoot each other probably. Well, Sora seems to be more in touch. He might help out a bit." She thought some more about Sora.

"The kids got spunk!" She giggled, and then paused.

"Why am I in such a good mood?"

m0.0m

Roxas sat at his desk, doing homework. He'd bee trying to work on it all afternoon but had had a mental block. After deciding to just get down to work and stop messing around, he found himself staring at his blank paper. He looked at the question, the wall, and back at the problem.

"God damn it! I need to finish this!" He sighed. "I blame the new kid."

Roxas had found himself unable to stop thinking about Sora. Not in a sexual way, but the twenty minutes they had spent together would not leave his head. He replayed Sora's spunky "Word to the wise," over and over in his head, enjoying the memory of Axels shocked face. Roxas hoped that he didn't have a crush on Sora.

"That would just be so… not me. I'm not a fall in love at first sight type of person. That would be _weird_. I mean, I don't feel like it at the moment, but you never know. Definitely think he's cute though. Axel was right about that. That is one attractive boy. God, this is annoying." He scowled. "This is due tomorrow! Argh!"

Roxas forcibly moved his attention back to his homework. At some length, he devised a way to BS his answers, and finished quickly thereafter.

m0.0m

Axel sat on the couch, watching TV and having a snack. He could never work on homework until his brain had been given time to get out of school mode and switch gears into homework mode. It was his way of justifying procrastination, and always involved vegg-ing out on the couch.

He heard a door slam, and his mother yell "Axel, babe, could you help put away the groceries?"

"Yeah! One sec!" he sighed at the prospect of getting off the couch, then launched himself up and into the kitchen. He gave his mom a hug and asked her, "How was your day?"

"Oh, fine. It was one of the kids birthday today, so we had to give them cupcakes." Axel's mother was a daycare provider. She ran a small preschool for three and four year olds.

"Was it a total disaster?" Axel asked as he put away some pasta.

"Oh, not quite as bad as usual. We gave it to them as one of the last rotation activities. We all sang together at the beginning, and then broke into the usual art-playground- learning stations, except we gave the cupcakes at the end of art and before they went to the playground." She placed bags of vegetables on the counter.

"I assume it was your idea?" He took the vegetables and began placing them in the appropriate drawers.

"Yeah. Who else's would it be?" She began putting things in the freezer. "Axel, I've told you to put things in the freezer first. They turn into giant lumps of frozen whatever. Right?"

"I know. Except that you have some strange organization going on in that freezer and I always do it wrong." He grinned and bent down to give his mother a kiss on the cheek. She rolled her eyes and finished putting the boxes of frozen food products away.

"Oh, go away. You need to do homework, I'm sure."

"Not as far as you know."

"Go do it."

"Later. There was a new kid at lunch today."

"Oh! Really?" Axel's mother was instantly diverted.

"Yeah, his name is Sora. He took finals at his last school, so he doesn't have to take them here." Axel leaned on the table as his mother set about getting herself a glass of tea.

"Lucky him. If the finals are as bad as you and your lazy butt make them seem." Axel's mother often ribbed him for complaining about tests, which he always did well on.

"Very funny. Well, as far as I can tell, the kids pretty smart. His dad is a major in the army, so they go to different bases around the country boosting morale and such for the troops going into the war."

"Oh my. That sounds hard. Especially since that means he hasn't been doing it for very long, if it started with the war." Axel could tell that his mother's maternal instincts had been switched on.

"Well, he's pretty outgoing. I think he's probably gotten used to it. He's not like you'd expect a new kid to be."

"Well, that's good to hear. You guys made friends with him then?" Axel grinned at the memory.

"Yup. Made a fool of myself doing it too." His mother grinned at this as well.

"Good. Teach you some humility. Lord knows you need it."

"Thanks Mom, I love you too," he replied dryly. She chuckled a bit.

"Go do your homework."

"I don't want to."

"Go."

"Fine."

m0.0m

Namine, like Kairi, had relaxed after finishing her homework. Unlike the rest of her friends however, Sora was not on her mind.

Roxas was. Like she did almost every evening, she angsted over the boy. Roxas was gay. He didn't pretend not to be, and hadn't done so for several years.

"It's just… I like him because he's so comfortable with himself. Which is like, I like him _because_ he's gay. Uch, irony sucks. Screw you irony." The closest she ever got to swearing was her nightly what she termed "teen drama fest." No one knew of her crush on Roxas, not even Kairi. And hopefully, no one would ever know. All she wanted was for Roxas to be happy, and confessing her love to him would definitely inhibit that. It would create awkward complications in their relationship that she could definitely do without. She sighed.

"I almost wish I was fickle, so I could just get over him. Ah well, I'll just hope it never becomes obvious. It's hard enough to act normal as it is." She sighed again.

"I wish this wasn't so complicated."


End file.
